


What you cherish most...

by SephyAthredon



Series: SephyAthredon Whumptober 2020 [5]
Category: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Blood, Desperation, FFVII AU Terra, Hurt/Comfort, Intimidation, M/M, Please... stop, Scene Rewrite, Stabbing, Terra as a member of AVALANCHE, Torture, Whumptober 2020, battleworn Cloud, cloudshipping, prompt number 6, scared cloud, slit hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27213484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SephyAthredon/pseuds/SephyAthredon
Summary: Cloud is forced to watch as Sephiroth tries to take away what he cherishes most. An entry for Whumptober under the prompt "Please...Stop".
Relationships: Cloud Strife/Terra (Final Fantasy VII), Terra & Aerith, Terra & Nanaki
Series: SephyAthredon Whumptober 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1992352
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	What you cherish most...

**Author's Note:**

> This one could be for any character from Cloud’s group really, but I chose my FFVII version of Terra that’s in AVALANCHE and was also a former SOLDIER. (You can read more about him on my Tumblrs, either WillfulWayfarer or Defiant-Ex-SOLDIERs) This one is going to be a bit shippy, but I like the ship dynamics of these two.
> 
> This is a rewrite of the final battle of Advent Children so some parts are going to be left out. Also this is really self indulgent, I apologize for that.

Terra knew this was Cloud’s fight, he knew that the man had to fight Sephiroth one on one, he had to settle things between them, but he couldn’t help but worry. Perhaps that was why he was rapidly scaling the Shinra building using as much of his SOLDIER strength as he could muster. He was almost to the roof, cautious of pieces of the building falling apart around him as Cloud and Sephiroth were fighting each other.

From the roof, Terra was sure he’d be able to spot them amongst the rubble, what he didn’t expect was to see Cloud being flung up into the air and stabbed repeatedly by Sephiroth. He watched this in horror, the man’s name at the tip of his tongue.

“Cloud!” He called, yet he was unable to react in time as he landed a few feet away, leaving a trail of blood lingering in the air for a moment. Terra was by his side in a moment, ever his faithful second in command.

He placed a hand gently on Cloud’s shoulder and the man got to his feet, looking over the cuts that littered his arms and legs, his gaze lingering on one particularly painful stab wound going through his foot. It was just what he was afraid was going to happen.

He watched as Cloud got to his feet, changing the grip on his sword to an underhanded one.

“Careful, Cloud. Don’t push yourself.” He said, aware of Sephiroth looming over them, he could strike at any moment.

“T-Terra? What are you doing here? You could get hurt. I’ll take care of Sephiroth alone.”

“No Cloud,” The other replied, unsheathing Earthshaker, his trusty sword, and standing at the ready beside his companion, gaze on the form of Sephiroth, “We defeated him together once, we’ll do it again.”

Sephiroth’s voice cut Cloud off just as he was about to make a response, “Tell me what you cherish most… give me the pleasure of taking it away…” Sephiroth brandished Masamune and charged at Cloud.

Instinct took over as Terra pushed the other out of the way, the blade ripping into him instead of it’s intended target. He let out a cry of pain and at the same time, he could hear Cloud respond with a cry of his own.

“Terra!” One bloodied hand was held out in front of Terra, as if hoping that he could save the man from his inevitable fate.

Why was he doomed to a life of his loved ones getting hurt?

“Ah…” Sepiroth’s voice cut through the sheer panic that was overwhelming Cloud’s mind, “Don’t tell me this is what you cherish most?” He looked down at the man impaled on his blade in a moment of mock thought, “In that case. You will watch as I tear him apart piece… by… piece.” He withdrew his blade, causing Terra to let out another cry of pain. Before Cloud could react, the blade had pinned him to the ground by a shoulder, and one black leather boot had kicked Tsuragi away from him.

“No! No! Leave him alone! Stay away from him! Don’t you dare touch him!” Cloud writhed against the cold steel of the blade only to be met with pain as he injured him further. He gripped the blade with his gloved hands and pulled, but he wasn’t strong enough to remove it, “Terra!”

Sephiroth pulled the other Ex-Soldier up by his hair so that he faced Cloud, teeth gritting in a barely suppressed growl as he tried to struggle out of his attacker’s grasp.

“I remember you” Sephiroth’s voice in his ear sent shivers down his spine, “You were there on that day, the day I was defeated. You fought alongside Cloud and the others. Now here you are, here both of you are, getting in the way of my plans once again.”

Sephiroth threw Terra roughly to the ground. He responded by whirling around and holding Earthshaker in front of himself to shield his body from an incoming attack.

“You’re right, you’re not going to win.” 

The way the silver haired man responded to this threat surprised Terra. Deep, rolling, chuckles left his mouth as is green catlike eyes bore into the Mako blue eyes that Terra had.

“Oh? Then tell me…. Who is going to stop me?” He had been talking to Terra, but turned quickly in Cloud’s direction when he was the one that replied.

“There will always be people to oppose you! No matter what happens to us, right Terra?”

The brown haired man nodded at that.

“Enough talk, let’s get to the fun part, shall we?” He seemed to be looking around, a wicked smile on his face, “Ah.” He replied, stepping over near Cloud. He knelt down and picked something up from the ground.

Cloud’s expression changed to one of shock when he recognized it as Tsuragi, in it’s fully fused form, just as he had left it. Sheer horror overcame Cloud at the realization that Sephiroth was going to hurt Terra with his own sword.

“No! No! Stop!” The man ignored him and in response his struggles became much more frantic, “Stop!” 

Terra had gotten slowly to his feet every part of him just wanted to rush to Cloud and get that sword out of him, but Sephiroth was nearby, still staring at him with that wicked grin. Within a few moments, he was beside Terra, the hand that wasn’t wielding Cloud’s fusion blade twisted Terra’s dominant hand to make him let go of Earthshaker. 

He tried to resist as long as he could, but it was too much. His wrist snapped and he immediately dropped the sword with a cry of pain. He was immediately kicked to the ground. Faintly, he could hear Cloud still screaming for Sephiroth to release him. The other’s throat sounded raw and hoarse by now.

Terra’s attention was brought back to Sephiroth as a leather boot stepped squarely on his sternum, the Silver haired man putting all his weight on it so that Terra couldn’t possibly get up. Even with his broken wrist, he dug his nails into Sephiroth’s flesh and promptly stopped doing so when Sephiroth knelt down and Tsuragi was lowered horizontally against his neck.

“Oh how easily I could take his life away from you.” His attention was on Cloud, “And how ironic it would be to use your own blade too. So simple.” He pushed it even further against Terra’s neck, the man let out a whimper in response as he could feel the cold steel digging lightly into his flesh. He tried to keep himself from shaking. 

“Don’t! You’re not after him, you’re after me, right? I’d gladly give my life for his!” Cloud responded, a sense of urgency in his voice. 

Again, he responded with a laugh, “I’ll get to you later, but I did say I’d make you watch as I tear him apart piece by piece, didn’t I? There’s simply no fun in just beheading him.”

The steel was removed from Terra’s throat, revealing a shallow but angry red line going across it. Another was added as the Sephiroth removed his boot and dragged the sword across Terra’s chest from the top of his ribcage down to his stomach. The cut wasn’t deep, but it was enough to hurt, and enough to cause Terra to scream out in response.

By now, Cloud’s hands were red from the amount of effort he put into trying to remove the sword that pinned him to the ground, digging his hands deep into the blade and risking getting cut to try and get it free. 

Sephiroth was distracted with everything he was doing to Terra. Mostly he was using Tsuragi to leave cuts on Terra’s arms and legs. Normally he’d go for cutting them right off, but he wanted this Terra to suffer and to make Cloud suffer in return. He knew that with each drag of the blade across Terra’s skin, Cloud felt more and more pain. He enjoyed it.

Cloud’s efforts were paying off though, as he managed to get the blade so far up that it tilted to the side. This was a sign that it was almost out. He began smacking the, luckily blunt, side of the sword with his palm and sure enough it gave way and only his shoulder was impaled on it.

Once he stood up, he grabbed the Masamune, plucking it out of his shoulder and wielding it in the hand he usually held Tsuragi in. He made sure to approach Sephiroth quietly, though each pained cry from Terra begged for an anguished response. 

When it was finally time to strike, Cloud dug the blade deep into Sephiroth’s back. In a last ditch effort, Sephiroth brought Tsuragi down on Terra once more, but Cloud was quick to snatch up Earthshaker and deflect the blow with it, kneeling beside Terra while holding the blade in front of his body. 

He looked to Terra, “Let me finish this…” All he got was a slight nod, that was all he needed. Wrenching Tsuragi out of Sephiroth’s grip, he took it in his deeply scarred hands. Then he launched the silver haired man up into the air and, despite how battered and bruised he was, he began to glow with the indication that his limit break was ready. 

“I pity you. Terra may be who I cherish above all else, but there’s so much more!” He pulled off a new version of his final limit break on Sephiroth.

All Terra could see though his rapidly failing vision was a bunch of glowing figures up in the air with Sephiroth. He was coherent enough to notice when Cloud landed right next to him though.

“Stay where you belong, in my memories.” He heard Cloud’s voice, faintly, and Sephiroth’s even fainter.

“I will…. never be a memory.”

Terra barely caught Cloud rushing over to him before he blacked out completely.

———————————————————————————————————–

The next thing Terra knew, he was standing in a field of flowers. None of his wounds showed on his figure. He didn’t feel any pain or discomfort, as a matter of fact… he felt oddly joyous. He scanned the field, seeing a familiar pink-clad figure in the distance.

He approached carefully, a smile on his face. He didn’t think he’d ever get to see the woman he had cared about as a younger sister again. The smile faded from his face as he realized that must mean one thing.

“Am I… dead?”

“No Terra, but you’re just barely clinging to life. Our friends are helping you to get better as we speak, So, you don’t have to worry about that.” Aerith spoke, her voice sounding all too familiar.

“Then why am I here?” He looked around, a confused expression on his face. 

“I’m afraid a new face has turned up here in the lifestream, a blond guy, with spiky hair and bright blue eyes…”

“Cloud!” Terra replied, his voice laced with panic.

“He means a lot to you, doesn’t he, Terra? I always thought so. You’ll take care of him, won’t you?” 

Terra nodded, “I have been, for the past two years. He can’t seem to get over you though…”

She hummed lightly, “I know. He said… he wanted to be forgiven. I told him in response that he should be the one doing the forgiving.”

“Yeah… your loss impacted all of us… but Cloud was the one that was hit the hardest by it. It seems though, that he’d found some hidden strength that our group had years ago, when we fought Sephiroth. It’s a shame that it didn’t help him…” He closed his eyes, remembering the image of Cloud on the ground, the sword impaling his shoulder and his arm reaching out.

“Let me tell you a secret, then.” Aerith leaned close to Terra, “He’s not actually dead.” 

“How…?” Terra looked to Aerith in surprise.

“Zack and I both agreed he should get a second chance.”

“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without Cloud.” Terra felt a faint tugging at the back of his mind, a sensation that told him to ‘wake up’, “Looks like our time here is almost at an end.”

Aerith nodded, “This is the last time I’ll be able to visit you.” 

With this knowledge in mind, there was something Terra really wanted to tell the ancient, “I know it’s kind of pointless right now, but I’m sorry I wasn’t able to save you. I was right there and I couldn’t do a thing.”

Aerith responded to that with a light laugh, “Those are your last words to me? You sound like Cloud.”

Terra smiled, “Yeah, I guess I do.” the man’s vision went a little fuzzy and he swayed in place, Aerith seemed to have taken this as a sign that he was going to wake up. She said her last words to him.

“Take care of him Terra, and make sure he knows he is loved, that is all I ask.”

A blinding flash of white light pulled Terra out of the flower field and back to reality as he noticed he wasn’t alone in the bed he was in. He recognized the place as his own home in Edge, he shared it with Cloud. It was in close proximity to the Seventh Heaven. 

Looking to his right, he spotted Nanaki curled up on the bed next to him, keeping him company in his sleep. Gently he reached a hand over and ran it through the other’s thick mane of hair, causing him to look up.

“Y-You’re awake…” His voice was aged and wise, but that wasn’t going to fool Terra. He knew that deep down, Nanaki was just a teenager scared of another repeat of the time everyone had to rush Terra to the Mideel clinic because he had been shot, scared that this time he wasn’t going to survive.

“Yeah…” He went to rub his eyes, but a pain in his arms stopped him, “Where’s Cloud?”

“Dunno. he’s been up and about lately…” Nanaki hopped off the bed and looked back at Terra, “I’ll see if I can find him.”

As Nanaki left the room, Terra sank back in the bed, glad to be in his room that he shared with Cloud when all was said and done. Despite the numb pain now flowing through Terra, he was almost ready to fall back asleep, until he heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching the room. The door was knocked open as Cloud stood in the doorway, breathing heavily.

Terra guessed he must have ran to get to him. The very idea that Cloud wanted so urgently to see him made him smile.

“Terra…” The other’s name was whispered as he approached slowly, “Terra, I’m sorry. You got hurt because of me… because I wasn’t strong enough…”

The other Ex-SOLDIER sighed, this kind of apology sounded all too familiar. 

“Come here.” He sat up and hooked his arm around Cloud’s neck, bringing him down on the bed with him. The other man didn’t seem to object, gazing up at him with wide, surprised eyes, “I took that hit for you because I care, Cloud. I didn’t want to see you get hurt any more than you already were. I was even willing to lay down my life for you” He pressed their foreheads together, “Always… because I love you.”

Cloud wrapped his arms around Terra, holding him tightly, “You know… he was right…”

“Hm? About what?”

“You are… the person I cherish most. Without you in my life… I don’t know what I’d do. Ever since we met in Junon, you’ve always been by my side, you’ve always been there for me… same as Tifa and Marlene… I.. I’m just tired of losing people that I care about…”

The statement tugged at Terra’s heartstrings, “You won’t, not anymore. I’ll make sure of that. You didn’t lose me… that’s what’s important.”

“Mmmhmm” Cloud buried his head in Terra’s shoulder, he sounded tired.

“We should get some rest.” Terra wasn’t all that tired, but honestly, he just wanted to lay in bed with Cloud a little bit longer.

“Yeah.”

The two of them soon drifted off in each other’s arms. Sleep always came much easier to Cloud when Terra was nearby after all.


End file.
